So, this is my current work location for the next 4 weeks - It's an old machine room at the customer's site. We're using it because there's not many places you can lay out 200 tills. The pic only shows 100...the other 100 arrive this week.
This was saturday evening and we were all full of curry. Still a few days to go on the whole upgrade project. But it seems to be working. Technical info (SAP Upgrade from 4.6 to ECC 6 with a 1.4 TB database)
Venice is famous for its glass. The first time I visited the city (back in 1996, with Sarah) we were looking in the glass shops, and couldn't believe what awful bad taste it was!!! Dreadful chandeliers and glass flowers and trees. Definitely skillfully completed, but I can't say I'd give any of it house room!Food & Drink (I'm going to do a blog post on the food!) Not posted yet
Dan's Knee (not posted yet)
Other bits which don't fit into a category!
Well it's the last day – sat at Venice airport thinking it's back to work tomorrow! Can't believe it's gone so quickly. A week almost seemed too much, last Tuesday. Now it doesn't really seem like long enough at all. I'm glad we've had our time here though. Lots of relaxed wanderings without having to stress about fitting it all in. We even managed a complete DO NOTHING day, where we just read, ate, and slept. THAT'S what holidays are for!! I hesitate to say, but I think even Dan has enjoyed this unusual city – the little bridges over canals which turn at unusual angles around (and under) medieval houses, lots of fab bars and restaurants (a superb one we found yesterday was called 'Hell's Kitchen' in behind St Mark's square; not called that because of the TV Show, but because many of their specials are flambeed at your table.) We went for the safer option, wine, and tapas-like starters.
The bar was on the corner of a canal, and like our hotel, had a canal entrance (I love that!) The pic is the view from our table – right along the canal. Fab.
Birthday celebrations continued today with the 'Secret Itineraries' tour of the Doge's palace. This was something Dan booked and gave me the tickets for whilst we were at dinner yesterday. We got to walk past the long queue of people waiting for tickets and straight in to the ticket office – and exchanged our booking reference for some stickers (yay!) and our tickets into the museum, with strict instructions to be at the meeting point at 10:45. Our guide, Elena, then got us kitted up with listening devices and then took us up to the main floors of the palace after first having explained that we were going to be up in the roof of the palace, into the secret parts of the building.
We couldn't take pictures up there (or, I guess, or it wouldn't be a secret itinerary!) but we were taken up into the roof space where there were rooms there occupied at one time by the chancellor. There was a secret courtroom, torture chambers, prison cells (where Cassanova stayed for 18 months) and an entire room built (by the Venetian shipbuilders, the Arsenalotti) to look like the inside of a ship, which was a 'copy room' where 10 copies of each document signed by the chancellor was blindly copied out by illiterate copyists – hence the content was unknown to them!
Fab – a winner Dan!
The pic shows the wall of the inside of the palace...the rooms were above the 3rd floor windows, see the round porthole 'eyes' at the top, that is where these rooms were – noone knew.
So, birthday lunchings were at 'Osteria Da Franz' famous in Venice for the seafood dishes. Franz himself cooked and served. For my starter I had tartre of swordfish, Dan had the baby octopus
Mains: Dan had seabass, I had fior
i di zuccha stuffed with cod
In between was a pasta course which we shared – spaghetti in a tomato sauce with sweet scampi and chilli
After was a really really good tiramisu followed by killer coffee and biccies.
When we used to stay in Forli in the summer, Mum and Dad would be in Nonna's bed, I'd be on a single which was in that room, at the side, and Janey would be on a put-you-up bed at the foot of the big bed. We'd go round at night, clearing the room of the mozzies (zanzara) and we'd burn one of those special little swirly candle things to put them off. Nevertheless if there was one in the room, it'd find me! Mum, Dad and Janey used to get the odd bite, but I'd always look as though they'd feasted 'till dawn on me. I'm sure the others used me as a lure so that they didn't get bitten!!! I remember once being able to trace a mozzie's journey from my neck, up across my mouth, nose and eyelid, into my hair. Bites all the way along, and me looking like Frankenstein's monster. Big swolllen lumps. Not just a little red spot. I always was allergic to them. A few years later I was living in a house with a pond. One night we sat out and I must have got bitten 20 or 30 times on the legs. The following day, my legs were solid blocks of poisonous mozzie bites. The individual bites had joined together! The doctor said I was too far gone for antihistamine, and that only cool baths and calamine lotion was going to do the trick! So it has come as a bit of a surprise to find that not only does Dan get bitten, he's even more attractive to the mozzies than me and he's even more allergic.
Bad news for Dan but quite good news for me! First time we realised his allergy was in Italy, at the beach, a few years ago. He got bitten on the eyelid and it swelled up so much it closed his eye, and the pharmacist wanted to give him an adrenaline injection!
This time, I was forewarned about the mozzies in the summer in Venice, and so have come prepared with antihistamine tablets, mozzie spray and stuff to sooth you if you have been bitten. Needless to say, though, he was got on the 1st night – 3 bites on the right knee. They've all come up in blisters, big'uns, and his knee is rock hard with the poison underneath. Poor guy – we keep putting cool, damp cloths on them to cool them down but I think the itching is driving him mad!
Phew well it's been a bit of a scorcher. Not sure of the temp but I'd say close to 30 degrees! The weather forecast was decidedly glum before we came away; predicting rain every day, and thunderstorms! Turns out it was completely inaccurate. I am glad! We saw thunder on the boat from the airport but not a drop of water since. From the sky that is. In the canals there's plenty!
The day has been lovely – breakfast in bed, prosecco, cards, balloons, a banner and a big badge! Roses too. How am I going to get them home?
Then a bellini in Quadri's cafe in St Mark's square. If I tell you that we have paid less for dinner some nights than the cost of the 2 cocktails, then you might get an idea of how silly the prices are. Mind you, it's the view you're paying for, innit?!!
Lunch was a super surprise. Dan booked a place MILES away from St Mark's square. We walked over half an hour to get there, and it was down a little side canal – you'd not know it was there unless you were looking for it. Osteria da Franz. Little did I know it's famous for being one of the top restaurants in Venice. Fish & seafood, of course. Franz himself was hosting and cooking. A lovely man, (his birthday tomorrow), and extremely welcoming.
Apparently (we overheard a lady telling her guests) that in the evenings it gets so busy, sometimes you have to wait until midnight for a free table. We were lucky – a French family, the lady and her 2 guests, and us. So we had the best of it. Franz discussing every course in detail (no menu – he just closed his eyes and described the cooking of each dish) and even the secret of the incredibly sweet tomatoes.
I have been trying to explain to Dan that Venice isn't really like other Italian historical cities. Other than the Doge's Palace and Basilica San Marco – there's not a lot 'inside' to see. The thing to see in Venice is Venice itself. You wander round and round and happen upon little piazzas and lovely views of tiny balconies dripping with flowers and 14th century columns! Of course, almost every corner has a canal and the 1st time we wandered out of the hotel we happened upon such a unique little set of bridges, canals and colonnaded walkways, Dan just turned and said “it's not real” and he's right. It doesn't feel real! In fact his summary (from the boat journey from the airport) was 'old things and lots of water'. Technically correct, but I don't think he'll ever get a job with the Venetian tourist board! 
ion for the bus tickets was the one the attendant should be typing into his system, we had ourselves some return tickets to Venice! The water bus arrived and we all piled on. It's a fab ride across the lagoon with all the islands whizzing past, and you get a real sense of where Venice actually lies, in the middle of a huge body of water. We stopped at Murano (the glass place) then at Lido (the beach place) and then across the lagoon towards the grand canal. Venice looked stunning in the afternoon sun. We got off the bus at Piazza San Marco and I managed to navigate to the hotel without even digging out the map. I was quite impressed! Just as we were crossing a bridge and I was thinking I wasn't quite sure – Dan said 'do you know where we are?' and I was just about to say no, when we looked to the right and there was the canalside entrance of the hotel. Well cool!
We had booked the hotel through TripAdvisor and mainly because of the comments about the staff. I have to say, they didn't let us down. Charming, friendly and welcoming, we got water on arrival (much needed) and after an efficient check-in, we were in our room in about 10 minutes.
So far, nothing has been too much trouble for them – arranging the champagne, flowers and breakfast in bed for me, and even just getting extra pillows, and sorting out internet access.
OK so I know I'm Italian, but, we get our olive oil from a Greek guy at Leeds Farmer's Market. We got our first 20 litres about 18 months ago after having been at the market, tasted the oil and then bought a single litre. It was the nicest oil either of us had tasted for some time - and we buy a lot of expensive oil. So Dan did his thing, sent an email and negotiated a price. I think we paid about £7.50 a litre. It was really good oil!
CUTIEEEEEEEEEEEE!
